Holocaust survivor 'disappointed' at missing out on invitation to service

ON the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day a survivor who lives in Bournemouth has told of his disappointment at not being invited to the town’s commemoration on Sunday.

Mark Goldfinger, 83, was just nine years old when German tanks rolled into his home town of Rabka in Poland in 1939, and he was later taken to the Krakow ghetto, and to Plaszow and Buchenwald concentration camps.

He has been invited to the national commemoration in Whitehall on Monday but won’t be able to attend due to the weather, however he hadn’t even heard about the local event, at the Lighthouse in Poole.

“As a Holocaust survivor living in Bournemouth for some 18 years I would have thought I would at least have been informed the event was taking place,” he said.

“If you don’t invite survivors then what is the point of holding it?

“If these events carry on as they do now I fear that in years to come the Holocaust will fade into theoretical knowledge.”

Mr Goldfinger, who lives in East Cliff, said Holocaust Memorial Day has always taken his mind back to his childhood and the horrors of the ghetto and the camps.
But he warned that many people remain ignorant about the events of the Holocaust and the Second World War in general.“i

Wthout doubt it is very important that it is remembered, people read little about it these days and aren’t familiar with what went on, but it has to be commemorated for the sake of the victims, for the sake of history and for the sake of education.”

The commemorative event at the Lighthouse will take place at 2pm on Sunday, organised by the Bournemouth and Poole Holocaust Memorial Committee.

Several years ago, Mr Goldfinger had an emotional meeting with Werner Oder, a Bournemouth pastor whose father was an SS officer.

There will be an act of commemoration, a talk from Lvov ghetto survivor Janine Webber, music and performances, with tickets available from the centre and various Jewish community groups in the area.

Lynda Ford - Horne who is organising the event told the Echo she would call Mr Goldfinger on Sunday to invite him.